Bleach Drabbles
by incandescens
Summary: Various Bleach drabbles, collected here. Taken from different points in the storyline, not connected. Some may contain spoilers.
1. ladies in waiting

**ladies in waiting**

Moonlight is sweet on killing stone, turning the White Tower to a candle in the night, making it a thing of life rather than death. Kuchiki Rukia sits at the window and looks at the tower, and the sky beyond, and listens to the moon's silent singing.

Hinamori Momo moves slightly in her sleep as her Captain draws a blanket over her, but does not wake as he leaves the room. His footsteps fade into her dream; step, step, silence.

Unohana Retsu looks around the infirmary, and tastes blood in the air; past, present, and so much more to come.

---


	2. to fight the rising odds

**to fight the rising odds**

_Well, that's it,_ Urahara thought as he watched them run through the gateway, and saw the transmutation from body to spirit.

He had to admit that he'd been outplayed on this one. He hadn't expected Soul Society's actions so soon, and all his schemes had been pushed into overdrive in an attempt to keep the plan moving.

The light glinted on Ichigo's sword as they vanished down the tunnel, and glittered on Orihime's hairpins, Ishida's glasses, Chad's belt buckle. It haloed them as they vanished into the shadowy distance, souls going to war.

_Soldiers?_ Urahara thought. _No. But perhaps heroes._

---


	3. I will not say farewell

**I will not say farewell**

Kuchiki Byakuya mourned his wife as was proper, and then he folded up his memories and stored them in cedarwood boxes, laying them away in the darkness.

Sometimes he takes them out and runs them through his hands like silk, and remembers the scent of her hair.

Sometimes he does not think of them at all, does not even consciously remember her, but in his sleep he curls up around her absence.

But more often he lies awake in the dark, and looks up at the fingers of the moonlight stroking the ceiling, and remembers the pulse of her heart.

---


	4. he hopes she understands

**he hopes she understands  
**  
There is absolutely no choice in the matter. He knows that; she knows that. The Kuchiki family must be above suspicion, cannot be above judgment.

Rukia has understood this from the first day that his family took her in. Surely she understands it now, beneath the shadow of the blade.

He will put her memorial tablet in the family shrine, and he will give her the proper rites, and he will grieve for her as his sister. But first, within the hour, he has to walk out and watch her die.

He could kill her for doing this to him.

---


	5. dedicated follower of fashion

**Dedicated followers of fashion**

**Diary of Kuchiki Byakuya**

**Monday:** Three with orange hair in eleventh division.

**Tuesday:** Ten with orange hair in eleventh division. Four in third division. Seven in thirteenth division.

**Wednesday:** The numbers grow. None in my division yet.

**Thursday:** Fully half the assembled shinigami had orange hair. Spiky orange hair. They are plotting against me, I know it. I must prepare to strike first.

Renji at least is still faithful.

**Friday:** Orange hair. Everywhere. Rukia accuses me of flinching. I do not flinch. I merely observe.

**Saturday:** Have been ordered to take vacation and enjoy the cherry blossoms.

Cannot think why.


	6. they call it a relationship

**they call it a relationship  
**  
She nags. She pesters. She expects things from him.

She sleeps in his closet.

She arranges for something that lives in a teddybear to possess his body.

She acts as if she blames him -- _him_ -- for the whole mess.

She's deliberate. Unscrupulous. Just plain mean.

She reads shoujo horror manga and keeps her weird spiritual drugs in cute little Pez dispensers.

She keeps on forgetting to tell him things till it's nearly too late.

She watches him in the same way that he watches his sisters.

He shouts at her. She shouts back. They understand each other perfectly.

---


	7. so close, so far

**so close, so far**

There ought to be a word for someone stupid enough to shove his best friend away from him while trying to make her happy, but Renji doesn't know what it is.

There ought to be a word for wanting someone's body (white as old jade), wanting his closeness (so rare, so unobtainable), but Renji doesn't know that one either.

That's the problem with being a dog howling at a star, a monkey reaching for the moon, all those poetic images that mean wanting and never getting.

Why does he have to want so much the very things he can't have?


	8. one cannot dance alone

**one cannot dance alone**

The Scarlet Princess has missed this.

The thrill of kissing, steel against steel; the glide through the air; the fanning of her skirts and sleeves as she throws them up on her master's command, letting them brush against the heavens and earth as she shields him.

This dancing partner is a new one, but he has a certain raw vigour which charms and entices her. He holds himself so aloof, yet comes striding towards her like the dark moon down from the pale skies.

That night, she sings in her master's veins, whispers along his wrists and throat; _again, again._

---


	9. AU: Taroticum: Death

**Taroticum: Death**

The first year after being adopted into the Kuchiki family, Renji did his best to prove worthy of Kuchiki Byakuya. (His big brother. He'd gained a brother. And lost a sister somewhere.)

The second year after his adoption, he tattooed himself, he took drugs, he took risks, he did anything he could think of that might attract that cool glance, get a reaction, _any_ reaction. (And Rukia became Byakuya's vice-captain and greeted him cheerfully when they met.)

The third year, he gave up.

Three different paths, and nothing worked, till death and life struck like twin hammers and changed everything.


	10. dies irae, dies illa

**dies irae, dies illa**

"And then," Ulquiorra whispered to the Arrankar, "the Menos Grande will come and rip the sky open. And blood will fall from the heavens like rain, and the mortal souls below shall cower in fear. And we shall come like princes to take what is rightfully ours and rule in glory and terror. The Shinigami shall flee before us and we shall rend them limb from limb. And Aizen-sama shall reign in glory for ever and ever."

Grimmjow snorted. "Speak for yourself, kiss-ass. I'm just waiting for the fighting and the blood."

"We're all waiting for the blood," Ulquiorra murmured.

--


	11. embrace it

**embrace it**

Tousen would never have dreamed of selling his soul for power, or wealth, or duty; he gave his loyalty for love for a woman long dead. When he became a shinigami and took up her sword, that choice, that action had been his greatest betrayal of self. Choosing the path of least bloodshed was still choosing bloodshed; it was all a matter of degree.

It made later choices that much simpler.

He wondered how other people could be so deluded by the light. He had the truth in his personal darkness, told to him by a wandering voice in shadow.

---


	12. love sees not with the eyes

**love sees not with the eyes**

As a baby, Yachiru reached out to his sword. It shone in the sunlight. It was the only bright thing that she had ever seen in her short life. She was too young then to understand his words, almost too young to comprehend that the rumbling voice came from the huge figure above her.

Later on, as she grew up, she became aware that other people feared him, thought him ugly, called him a demon. She couldn't understand how they were so blind.

She will remember his heart, because that is the only part of him she has ever seen.

--


	13. Yours in aesthetic appreciation, etc

**Yours in aesthetic appreciation, etc**

"So," said Captain Yamamoto to the student, "you claim that you strolled into the dining hall stark naked due to an attack of amnesia."

"Don't know what came over me, sir," stated one Kyouraku Shunsui.

"And not, as we have been informed by Ukitake Juushirou, because of an extremely ill-advised bet with him."

"He must be feverish," Kyouraku said blandly.

Yamamoto frowned. "You will be on punishment duties till further notice. And as for Ukitake --"

"Sir?"

"His punishment will be answering the letters delivered to your shared room since the incident. Over five hundred, I hear, and counting."


	14. always on their minds

**always on their minds**

"I just want to . . . get my hands on his weapon."

"Oh yeah."

"And then, you know. One movement after another. Do it slow to start off with. Then faster, till we're both panting for more and --"

"And what about him?"

"Oh, he'd be begging for it as well. You know what the men round here are like. And then I --"

Captain Zaraki Kenpachi dozed behind the wall, half-conscious of the conversation. He smiled in his sleep, glad to know that the women in his division had their minds on important stuff like fighting and bloodshed.

---


	15. a sword to lie between us

**a sword to lie between us**

Ukitake found her waiting naked in his bed that night, curled up and small, huge dark eyes making it clear that she knew what was expected of her.

As he folded his robes, he lied gently to her about his tastes. (Shunsui would back him up if it should ever prove necessary.) But, he finished, she should share his bed for the night, so that nobody would have any reason to comment.

She slept turned away from him, huddled in on herself. Partway through the night, he woke to find her weeping in her sleep, ice frosting on her lashes.


	16. put off your winter

**put off your winter, clothe yourself in spring**

When Hisana wore the bridal white, those of the Kuchiki family who had deigned to attend muttered to each other that it was more than appropriate; she was dead to the whole of her previous life, whatever it might have been, and the sooner it was left behind, the better. 

She reappeared after the ceremony in a brightly coloured kimono, as vivid as the flowers which ornamented the hall. She turned her face up to her new husband for a kiss, and a polite ripple of applause ran around the hall.

And the birds sang sweetly, sweetly; after joy, sorrow.


	17. Very Busy Men

**Very Busy Men**

Aizen reclined on his throne and consulted his diary. Full. As usual. He had to admit that becoming a full-time evil mastermind had done wonders for his sex life. Of course, Gin had already been notorious -- something about all that smiling -- and had apparently had to put up signs saying **JUST BECAUSE I SAID HELLO DID NOT MEAN I WAS MAKING ADVANCES (EXCEPT WHEN I WAS).**

Really, the only loser was poor Tousen. Far too mild-mannered for true villainy.

Elsewhere, Tousen breathed a sigh of relief and contemplated the joy of no longer having to be Divisional Seme.

---


	18. I get no kick from champagne

**I get no kick from champagne**

Mandor smiled, and stroked Yoruichi's hair delicately as she lolled across his lap, her lips curved in a smile of orgasmic bliss.

Urahara entered quietly, and stood looking down at the pair. "Well," he finally said, "you win. I'll pay up. But I never thought you could do it. How did you do it?"

Mandor shook his head. "Really, Kisuke. This isn't the sort of thing a gentleman discusses."

"I'm no gentleman," Urahara pointed out.

Mandor gestured. Steel balls drifted into the air, and a silver flagon appeared floating amid them. "The very _best_ milk. Now, if you'll excuse us . . ."

* * *

(Crossover with the **Amber** series by Roger Zelazny.)


	19. dreaming in colour

**dreaming in colour**

It was hardly surprising that Rukia was in his dreams, with all the power transfer shit and everything.

The settings were weird, though. The one where they were in Western ballroom dancing gear and spinning round in a waltz. Or the one where they were having a snowfight. Or the one where they were at the beach, or doing sports.

Or the one with the tight white clothing and the black latex gloves on his hands. And he would reach over and lay his hand on her shoulder and --

"You're snoring," Rukia said, kicking him to wake him up.


	20. none so deaf

**none so deaf**

"Captain Aizen's so nice and intelligent," Hinamori said happily.

"Good," Hitsugaya grunted into his work.

"And he's so tall and muscular."

"Glad to hear it."

"But sometimes I just want someone who understood me. Someone with a gorgeous zanpakutou and a handsome face and deep piercing eyes." She took a deep breath and leaned forward. "Someone ambitious and strong and . . ."

"Perhaps you should ask Captain Aizen," Hitsugaya suggested.

Hitsugaya did wonder why he found Hinamori crying on Rangiku's shoulder later, and why Rangiku was muttering about morons who couldn't take hints, but it couldn't be that important.


End file.
